Gas-Leaking Industrial Tortilla Maker Burns Inmate, Prompts Lawsuit

Chris Shabazz-Wimberly, 39, filed a lawsuit claiming the Department of Corrections failed to repair the long-defunct machine that severely burned him - Lane County Sheriff's Office

A Eugene man serving an
eight-year sentence for robbery filed a lawsuit last week against the
Department of Corrections, claiming he was severely burned by a broken industrial
tortilla maker that had been repaired more than 120 times.

He says after he complained, he was then put in segregation then housed with a violent schizophrenic nicknamed "The Beast."

Chris Shabazz-Wimberly, 39,
worked for months in the kitchen at Two Rivers Correctional Institute in
Umatilla, pulling tortillas from a van-sized tortilla machine, he said in a
federal suit filed Friday in federal court in Portland after exhausting his
state-level remedies.

The tortilla machine allegedly
leaked natural gas and periodically exploded in blooms of fire. The Department of Corrections declined to comment on the case.

Shabazz-Wimberly says he complained
in May 2012 about being locked in a room with the machine, which caused others headaches and which he feared could explore and injure him. He said the pilot light would go
out, but allow natural gas to leak into the secure room.

A supervisor
directed staff to leave the kitchen door ajar when an officer wasn’t present to assure
inmates could escape in the event of a malfunction. But the plant manager said the
precaution was unnecessary; the building’s ventilation system would suck up the
leaking gas, he said.

Shabazz-Wimberly describes the machine as “a giant box with three windowpanes.
On the inside are four rotating plates heated by a natural gas line and pilot.
The machine operates at about 400 degrees. Tortilla routinely fall off the
plates and require the operator to open the panes and retrieve the tortillas
with a skinny stick.”

Each windowpane is rigged with a sensor to assure the pilot goes
out when someone opens a window. But in August 2012 staff disabled the sensor, he alleges, but failed to post a sign alerting inmates who worked with the machine.

That month Shabazz-Wimberly opened a window and reached in to
catch a fallen tortilla, he says. Just then the pilot turned itself back on, burning his
arm and hand. He ran around the room screaming, and the guards outside had gone
on break, he alleges.

Shabazz-Wimberly was treated for second-degree burns, but during
the post-incident review the manager of the section refused to photograph his
burns, he says. An ensuing report said that Shabazz-Wimberly had failed to
follow correct safety protocol.

His subsequent insurance claim from SAIF Corporation was denied because
“No medical treatment was received,” the incident was not witnessed by anyone
other than the inmate and he wasn’t wearing protective sleeves.

Shabazz-Wimberly alleges that after he complained, officers retaliated
against him by putting him in segregation then reassigning him to a cell with a
violent schizophrenic sexual assailant nicknamed “The Beast.”